Historically, adding material such as fresh fruit to a dough or batter or cereal in order to make a finished, cooked product has been performed with difficulty and frequently, unsatisfactory results. One problem associated with using fresh fruit or dry fruit is a difficulty in storage of the fruit. Fruits tend to be highly perishable and subject to microbial contamination. Some fruits require special storage conditions such as refrigeration. Dried fruits, such as raisins, require special pretreatment. The pretreatment includes softening by soaking in water for about one hour and then draining the water.
Another problem associated with using fruit is that processing fruit is difficult. Fresh fruit is comprised of a high concentration of water. For some processes, fresh fruit is added to a dough or batter, which may have a lower water concentration. As a consequence, the fresh fruit may bleed some of its color into the dough or batter, which is undesirable in some applications.
One other component of fruit that renders the fruit difficult to process is pectin. Pectin within a fruit is gummy, making any product prepared with a fruit having a high pectin concentration difficult to handle. In particular, the fruit is messy to handle. The fresh fruit with a high pectin concentration sticks to processing equipment.
Enzymes within the fruit may also render the fruit difficult to process. Some fruits are subject to enzymatic degradation when exposed to air, such as apples which turn brown. This susceptibility limits the usefulness of fruits such as apples in many baked goods.
Another problem with fruit is that fruit is expensive and, depending upon crop and weather conditions, may vary greatly in availability and quality. Furthermore, fresh fruit is, under some use circumstances, a limiting factor in a shelf life of a product that contains the fruit. When the fruit "goes bad," so does an otherwise shelf-stable baked product.
Particulate food products, having use as fruit analogs or other food analogs, have been made and used for several decades. One type of particulate food analog is prepared from a sugar-based formulation and is boiled as a candy. The step of boiling this food analog crystallizes the sugar, rendering the food analog irreversibly soft. When this type of food particulate is added to a dough or batter and then baked, the food particulate analog cannot withstand extended mixing of the batter or baking of the dough or batter. What occurs during mixing and baking is that a significant portion of the particulate disintegrates and "bleeds out" color that may have been added to the particulate. This feature of the particulate fruit analog is undesirable because the excessive "bleeding out" does not simulate the performance of the fresh or dehydrated food article.
For sugar-based food particulates that retain their integrity during a baking or cooking process, the final product outcome is also frequently undesirable in that the texture of the fruit analog is brittle and hard. These features are inconsistent with features of the food being simulated. One other problem with sugar-based particulate food analogs is that the analogs do not lend themselves to a uniform particle size when produced in bulk because the particles fracture. Specifically, it has not been possible to produce a particle size without also producing a high percentage of fines. In addition to fines, manufacture has produced a wide, unacceptable, variance of sizes in this type of product.
In one other production method, a food analog particulate is produced with a high fat content. This food is not generally regarded as fully satisfactory because, typically, a high fat food is not preferred by consumers.
The high fat food analog is made by pressing a high fat mixture through a sieve to make an individual particulate product. Size uniformity of the particulate product is better achieved through this type of pressing process. However, the particulate food pieces arc high in fat and caloric content and do not maintain their integrity when they are added to a batter or dough, and mixed and then cooked or baked. Because the food analog particles have a high fat content, the particles do not withstand ambient temperatures during storage. As a consequence, these food particulates require special storage, such as refrigeration which is expensive and is not always available.
Furthermore, the high fat particles do not carry added flavors or colors very well. Due to the high fat content of the particles, the particles do not retain their discrete particle integrity when added to a dough or batter because of the thermal conditions required in order to bake the dough or batter. These high temperature conditions may occur during processes such as moulding, proofing and baking. As a consequence, a finished baked good that contains the high fat particulates is comprised of color stains and holes where the high fat piece once existed, but melted from the thermal conditions.